I of course went with the Wolfman for my first pick and for my second pick I went with the Invisible Man. Strange had them priced at $13.99 which, while quite cheap when compared to many figures I collect, does add up quickly when you’re talking about 8 figures. ![]() Luckily, I had the strength to resist buying them all in one fell swoop. But dammit, there’s just something uber-appealing about these simple, silly ReAction figures and once my local comic shop, Strange Adventures, actually stocked them and they were right in front of me I knew I needed them all. Besides, I already have larger, highly detailed versions of many of the monsters ( Wolfman, Creature, Frankenstein) and I even have fun, retro doll versions of many of them too ( Dracula, the Mummy). ![]() Therefore I decided that when they became available in stores I would only buy my favorite monster, the Wolfman. However, as neat as they are, ReAction figures are somewhat of a kitschy novelty and buying 8 retro monster figures seemed like overkill. When I first saw pictures of the figures online I was very tempted to buy them all. I really like the retro look of ReAction figures and I love the Universal Monsters so the pairing seemed a match made in heaven. But they’ve also selected some contemporary properties, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, and some really old ones, like the Universal Monsters. Appropriately, a bunch of the properties they’ve selected for the ReAction treatment are from that time period such as the Goonies, Alien, Back to the Future, and Escape from New York. The idea behind the line is to create fun retro toys that look like the figures we played with in the late 70s and early 80s. The first series of ReAction figures was based on the movie ALIEN and from there Funko has branched out into all kinds of properties. But he accepts that he chose this fate, saying it’s like “death in the snow for a mountain climber.A while back I reviewed the Rocketeer ReAction figure by Funko. Still, after painting himself into nearly 200 pieces, his skin gets inflamed. He’s tried different methods to make sure he doesn’t absorb too many toxins from the paint, such as saturating himself in oil first. He will stand still for hours as assistants paint his clothes, skin and hair, taking constant photos of the progress. When starting a new piece, Bolin gets his photo taken in front of his chosen backdrop and painstakingly maps out perspective and angle for the perfect disappearing act. It’s earned him the nickname “The Invisible Man.” “In my world of art, people exist as individuals they are quite weak,” he says from Beijing. He’s since become more interested in how an individual relates to environments, painting himself into landmarks, street art and a store’s produce aisle. He made pieces like Laid Off, showing workers painted to blend in against the factory that fired them, or Made in China, where he camouflaged himself against a shelf of Disney toys. Frustrated, but feeling very much David to big industry’s Goliath, Bolin covered himself with paint and climbed onto the ruins to snap a picture of himself hiding in plain sight. ![]() ![]() In late 2005, Liu Bolin’s art studio in the small village of Suojiacun, China, was bulldozed to make way for Beijing Olympic development. Eli Klein Gallery/Barcroft USA/Getty Images
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